


Check

by uhpockuhlipz



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F, I'm gay, everything is gay, this is gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 18:43:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9780218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uhpockuhlipz/pseuds/uhpockuhlipz
Summary: Kara invites Lena for game night, but everyone else gets sick and it's just them. Lena teaches her how to play chess.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This was tumblr prompted and again I enjoyed writing it so here is where it ended up. (:

Game nights are group nights, usually. 

The whole gang comes to Kara’s apartment and they play team games, things like charades or taboo or whatever else they can get absolutely stupid with. Sometimes game night becomes karaoke night and sometimes it becomes sit-around-and-talk night, but the point is always that they’re doing it together. It’s a family, the family they made for themselves, and Kara loves their time together more than she loves pretty much anything else on this planet.

She invites Lena after everything because why shouldn’t she? She’s actually a little disappointed in herself for not thinking of it sooner, for not realizing how in need of a friend Lena has been since… well, since moving to National City in the first place. Maybe she’d known at the periphery of her mind, but she hadn’t been able to focus on it. Not with everything else going on. 

But Lena had stood against her mother. She’d stood against her, innocent in the face of countless accusations, and continued to stand against her even after. 

(The shouted _don’t hurt her!_ still echoes in Kara’s mind, even weeks later.)

She’d flooded Kara’s office with flowers in thanks, and Kara hadn’t done anything but believe in her, the way a friend should. The way a friend was supposed to. And the guilt had been raw and real in her belly because there’d been a moment, just a moment, when Lena accused her of thinking she was capable of breaking out Metallo and she’d hesitated.

(After everything Lena had done, after all the arguing Kara had done in her defense, she’d _hesitated_. What kind of friend did that?)

Lena is innocent and Lena is _good_ and Lena has become one of the best friends she’s ever had. And Lena needs a family as much as anyone in their group does, if not more than most. 

( _Come to think of it, I’ve never had family like you either._ )

So she invites her.

But then game night rolls around and it becomes clear that it isn’t going to happen how she’s planned.

Some virus had spread through the DEO, a flu or something, and both Alex and Winn had contracted it, which meant Maggie and James respectively each contracted it from _them._ James via super secret Guardian meetings, no doubt, and Maggie through… No. Nope. She doesn’t want to know how Maggie had contracted it.

The point being that by the time game night is supposed to be happening, it’s only Kara (who is an alien and therefore never gets sick) and Lena (who isn’t in contact with anyone from the DEO regularly). Kara texts her with a multitude of emojis explaining that everyone got some sort of bug and she wouldn’t blame her if she wants to skip, but that she’s totally welcome to come over anyway if she wants and _feel free to bring any two player games you have because I don’t any._

And Lena texts back that she still wants to come if Kara doesn’t mind (like Kara would ever mind seeing Lena) and _I don’t know many games, but I’ll see what I can dig out of the closet._

So Kara speed cleans her apartment, makes sure her Supergirl suit is shoved very far under her bed, and orders a very large pizza. 

By the time her doorbell rings, she’s feeling kind of weirdly nervous. Her stomach feels twisted up and fluttery and it’s almost like when… But no, it’s nothing like with James. That isn’t what this is. She’s excited to see Lena and maybe a little nervous about it being just the two of them because she wants her to have fun, but it isn’t because of _that._ It can’t be.

Kara opens her door to a smiling Lena with a pizza and one hand and a bag clutched in the other. “I ran into the delivery boy on my way up and figured this was for you,” she says, passing Kara the box before stepping inside. She removes her coat, drapes it over the back of a dining chair, and looks around Kara’s apartment like she’s never seen it before. 

(She has, Kara thinks, but only that once. Gosh, maybe she should’ve invited her over more. That was a friendly thing to do. They should’ve..) 

“Still just us tonight?”

“I’m afraid so,” Kara says with an apologetic smile. Lena looks at her and lifts her eyebrows and Kara’s eyes go wide, her hands flying up to wave away the words. “Not that it’s a bad thing. I don’t mean to imply that… you know what I mean,” she grumbles when Lena starts to laugh, fingers adjusting her glasses as she pouts, just a little. “That was just evil.” She pauses, her breath catching at the word slip, but Lena is still only grinning at her and she relaxes again.

“Well, I have to act like a Luthor _somehow,”_ she teases in return, her fingers brushing down Kara’s arm before she turns her attention the the bag hanging off of her shoulder. 

(And Kara totally doesn’t shiver, she _doesn’t,_ that would be-) 

“I brought chess. I’m afraid it’s the only game I own.” Lena sets out an old, leather case, worn at the corners, and carefully flips it open. One on side, a wooden chessboard is held in place by elastic bands. On the other, all the hand-carved pieces are slotted carefully into individual compartments. Rather than the standard white and black that Kara is familiar with, they are carved from light wood and dark, different shades of brown.

“I remember you had a chess board in your office,” Kara says with some curiosity, reaching out to pluck one of the pieces from the case. She turns it in her fingers - it looks like a little castle - admiring how smooth the wood is under her fingers. She is exceedingly careful. The idea of accidentally harming something that is obviously important to Lena seems deplorable. “It wasn’t this one.”

“No,” Lena agrees, her voice quiet. “That one is more for show. Power plays, you know? I’m very good at chess.” She flashes a smile. “And being a CEO, running a company like mine in a world like the one I’m in? It’s all just a giant game of chess.” She plucks a piece from the case as well (the darker version of the one Kara holds), tapping a finger thoughtfully against it. “This set was a gift from my brother. I was ten. He said _you’re grown up enough for your own set now, Lena,_ and he gave this to me. ” She looks up at Kara, green eyes searching, uncertain.

Kara touches the back of her hand, offers a soft, reassuring smile. “I’m honored you brought something so important to you. So. You’ll teach me? I’ve never played.”

Lena closes her eyes a moment, exhales quietly in what Kara thinks is relief. When she opens them again, she’s smiling, already nodding as she takes the board from its allotted side. 

“Of course, Kara.”

//

“Wait, but I thought you said this little round guy could move either one or two spaces,” Kara complains, frowning down at the board.

“Only on the first move.” Lena puts her knight back in place and returns Kara’s piece to its previous position. “And the pawn,” she provides the name with slight emphasis, smiling at Kara, “Can only take pieces at a diagonal, remember?”

“Right.” Kara frowns, brow creasing with her concentration as she studies the board. “Fine, okay. So I’ll move my castle here. That’s how it moves, right?”

“Yes.” Lena chuckles. “That’s how a rook moves. But you put him in danger, see?” Lena points at her knight.

“Wait, how? Your horse is all boxed in. He can’t just trample people to get to my castle. That’s cheating!”

Lena laughs fully now, pressing a hand to her stomach like it aches. She’s been laughing a lot tonight and Kara finds that she can’t help but smile when she does, that her belly flips and twists and it’s not comfortable, but at the same time, she doesn’t want it to stop. “Kara. The knight moves in an L shape, always. Even if it jumps over other pieces. So.” She lifts the horse, moves it in an L shape to show Kara exactly how it moves, and replaces Kara’s castle (rook, she reminds herself). “And that’s check.”

“Check,” Kara repeats with a huff. “That basically means you win.”

“Basically,” Lena agrees with a small smile. But her eyes are soft as she looks up at Kara - her entire expression is soft - and for a moment Kara is caught up in that look. She forgets to sulk playfully over her impending loss, forgets to pretend she can’t remember the names of the pieces just to hear Lena correct her, forgets to _breathe._

And still smiling slightly, Lena reaches down and takes Kara’s queen, moving it in a diagonal down the length of the board until it sits beside her own king. 

“Checkmate,” she murmurs, looking up at Kara with liquid eyes. “You’ve won after all.”

(Kara’s heart is racing and _oh,_ she thinks, _not yet._

But soon.)


End file.
